The most sinful bowl of rice

Now that my quarantine period is over, I can start to meet up with friends who I haven't seen in far too long. J and I have known each other for almost 20 years, and we last saw each other 5 years ago. I was definitely not passing up an opportunity to catch up with her. I wanted something casual as it's just the 3 of us, and as it happens, My Stove (My灶) is really close to her home. This was perfect... because I've been craving a certain dish for a long, long time...

Steamed chicken (水果雞) - we pre-ordered half a chicken as this is very popular. The chickens are apparently fed on a diet which includes fruits, hence the name of the dish. Nice and its own but better with the different dips and condiments.

Braised pork rice (滷肉飯) - for this interview with the South China Morning Post, this was among one of the dishes I mentioned that I most wanted to have once I was able to travel again. So here I am!

Just look at this glorious spoonful of sauce-soaked rice with a gob of glistening, fatty, delicious pork skin. This was just sooooo drool-worthy, and yes, it tasted every bit as sinful as it looked. This time I didn't share it with anyone else... apart from one spoonful with Sankala.

House specialty sausage (秘制香腸) - this was very, very tasty. Not only was the texture springy and bouncy, but the flavors were much more complex than your run-of-the-mill Taiwanese sausage with that sweet taste. Sankala seriously considered whether to buy some to take back to Hong Kong.

Spring rolls with bamboo shoots (鮮筍春卷) - it sounded interesting, but while the bamboo shoots were fresh, the taste of these spring rolls was on the boring side.

Stir-fried chayote shoots (清炒龍鬚菜) - we don't get to have this often, so I was happy to munch on this again after such a long time.

Stir-fried squid with diced chili (剁椒小卷) - as usual this wasn't considered spicy or hot for Sankala, but it was certainly livening up my taste buds.

Stir-fried tripe (珍味肚尖) - I didn't expect to see pig stomach tips (肚尖) on the menu in many Taiwanese restaurants, and I wanted to see how it compared with what we find at Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong. The slices were thin and the texture was very, very springy - exactly what I wanted out of the stomach tips.

Stir-fried string beans with salted egg yolk (鹹蛋四季豆) - I didn't expect spring beans to get the salted egg yolk treatment, but this was pretty good, too.

So... yeah... I definitely over-ordered. Again. There was no way that the three of us could have finished seven dishes plus my bowl of braised pork rice. But I got to taste many dishes I haven't tried before, so that was pretty satisfying. It's clear why the restaurant has been so popular, and since it's reasonably close to my home, I definitely want to make regular visits whenever I'm back in town.